Months ago, I received a Grammar Hammer suggestion to look at the difference between the words “shinny” and “shimmy.” The person who suggested this topic to me said she’d never heard the word “shinny.” I’ll confess, I hadn’t heard of it either. I wondered if shinny was an eggcorn (a word or phrase that results…

In public speaking, you are taught to watch your use of “disfluencies” – as in the crutch words where you um, like, and you know your way through the silence as your brain scrambles to make a point. Disfluencies can dilute your message and damage your credibility. When speaking to a crowd, ending each point with…

If you were a child of the 70s and 80s, ABC’s animated series Schoolhouse Rock left an indelible mark. Many of us can trace a love for history, mathematics, science and – of course – grammar to the show’s clever, musical episodes. In honor of the back to school season, ABC aired a tv special last month ranking the…

I’m of the age that one of the classes I took in high school was typing. Putting two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence was drilled into our heads as a best practice with no rhyme or reason for why this was necessary. Recently, a heated discussion over whether this practice…

A suggestion from a loyal reader inspired this week’s Grammar Hammer. Is everyday one word or two words (every day)? Both variations refer to an activity that occurs on a daily basis. As usual, the best way to determine which version to use depends on the context. If I am discussing the routine activities that…

Elicit and illicit might sound similar, but technically they are not homophones and their meanings are vastly different. The words are occasionally confused due to their similar pronunciation and spelling, which is why they are the focus of today’s Grammar Hammer. “Elicit” is a verb that means “to obtain.” It can also mean “to draw out, to extract,…

I often see “wile away the hours” used interchangeably with “while away the hours,” so which is correct? Technically, they both are, but there are some subtle differences one should consider. “To while away the hours” means to “pass time idly” or to “pass time, especially in some leisurely or pleasant manner.” For example, “I spent hours…